sweetgale, Myrica gale

Terrific plant! Lousy image. Sweetgale grows in bogs and on shores. Beavers like it so much they locate their homes near it. Sweetgale was used as beer flavoring long before hops, and still is particularly in Scandinavia. It was used by Acadians before their move to Louisiana, and the Creole still use it for flavoring.
It also has had medical uses. So why the lousy shot? I delight in outings with the Botany Club. You see and learn so much! But it creates a tension between keeping up with the group (I once lost them completely), and taking time to get the shots. This day, in this bog, keeping up was particularly challenging and rewarding. So this lousy snap of sweetgale is all I've got. Sweetgale grows in all of Canada, on SPM, in AK, CT, MA, ME, MI, MN, NC(E), NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA(T), RI, VT, WA, and WI; and across northern Eurasia. Mackinac Co MI, 5/27/17. Myrtle family, Myrtaceae.